see it clearly
How Christmas Came To The Green Forest
by Thornton W. Burgess
It was Christmas morning. Happy Jack Squirrel sat in his doorway looking out at a white world, for Green Forest and the Green Meadows were green no longer. You see the snow lay deep over them and even the great pine trees, which keep their green leaves all through the winter, were white. It was all very beautiful, very beautiful indeed. Everything sparkled and glistened in the rays of jolly, round, bright Mr. Sun.
"Merry Christmas!" roared rough Brother North Wind as he swept past.
Happy Jack shivered and buried his hands in the fur of his waistcoat to keep them warm. The fact is, Happy Jack didn't feel merry a bit. It is hard work to feel merry when one is hungry and there is nothing to eat. And Happy Jack was very hungry that Christmas morning. You see he hadn't had a good meal for several days. The snow that made everything so beautiful had covered deep the nuts he had hidden in the fall, and then the surface of the snow had frozen so hard that he couldn't dig through it. The nuts he had hidden in a hollow tree had been found and stolen by someone. And so Christmas morning found Happy Jack anything but merry.
He knew that there were others no better off than himself. He had heard Chatterer the Red Squirrel scolding and complaining, for all he could find to eat were a few seeds in the pine cones which still clung to the trees. He knew that Peter Rabbit was living on bark, and having hard work to get that because the young tree trunks were coated with ice. Mrs. Grouse was forced togo up tot he Old Orchard for apple buds because there was nothing else to eat. Tommy Tit and Drummer the Woodpecker were almost starving because the ice coated the trees so that they could get at only a very few eggs and grubs of insects, which, you know, are their chief food.
"Well, sitting here won't get me anything to eat," muttered Happy Jack, and started down the tree. Half way down he saw something at the foot of the tree that made him stop and rub his eyes. Could it be? Could it really be? Yes, it was a little heap of nuts and bright yellow corn! In a twinkling he was down and stuffing himself as fast as ever he could. when he could eat no more he started out to look for his cousin. Chatterer the Red Squirrel, and when he found him he found that Chatterer had also had a present of nuts and corn.
By and by, along came Peter Rabbit and Peter was feeling very fine. He had a wonderful tale of a pile of cabbage leaves, a carrot and a turnip he had found ont he edge of the dear Old Brier Patch. Then who should come along but Mrs. Grouse, and she told of finding wheat and corn scattered all about one of her favorite hiding places.
"Dee, dee, dee, chickadee!" Tommy tit's voice hadn't sounded so merry for days. They hurried tot he edge of the Old Orchard. There were Tommy Tit and Drummer stuffing themselves from a great piece of fresh suet tied to one of the old apple trees. A noise over towards Farmer Brown's house made them all look that way. There on the doorstep stood Farmer Brown's boy and he was smiling as he looked towards the Old Orchard and the Green Forest. "Merry Christmas!" cried Farmer Brown's boy.
Then they knew where all the good things had come from, and though he didn't know it each one wished him the very merriest Christmas he had ever known.
And this is how Christmas came to the Green Forest.